Dentists are warning patients will be put at risk and millions of dollars wasted because of the Federal Government’s rapid shut down of the chronic disease dental scheme.

The scheme, which is costing nearly $1 billion a year, was described by health minister Tanya Plibersek as one of the “most widely misused schemes ever designed in our public health system.” It will now be scrapped in just 9 week’s time.

The health department has said that any patient who has not received the relevant GP care plan items before will not be able to access Medicare funds for dental work.

A more serious issue is that dentists are only being given until November 30, 2012 to complete dental treatment. (australiandoctor.com.au)